Advantages and Disadvantages of free trade among Gulf Cooperation Council countries

The Gulf Cooperation Council

The Gulf Cooperation Council or GCC , emerged out of an agreement which was concluded on the 25th of May 1981 in Riyadh , the capital city of Saudi Arabia . The agreement was signed by the leaders and representatives from the United Arab Emirates , Kingdom of Saudi Arabia State of Bahrain , State of Qatar , State of Kuwait and State of Oman . The signatories of the said agreement proclaimed that the Gulf Cooperation Council was created to enhance the special relations within the involved countries , their standardized political system which is

based on their Islamic beliefs and practices , and their similar goals and joint destiny

Basically , the GCC 's special relations include their economic and political undertakings . Economically speaking , the GCC is considered as a regional trade market which has been inspired by the similarity of its member states in adopting the free trade economic policies . Moreover every member state is given the freedom to enforce its own trade policies considering that the GCC is not in any position to impose any trade laws . Yet as the six member states continue their economic endeavors , they gradually increased their cooperation on issues like intellectual properties , customs duties , intra-GCC investments and standards-setting

As stated earlier , the different member states of the GCC collaborated and coordinated due to their adoption of the economic policies of free trade . But what is the significance of this economic policy choice ? What is the link between the free trade agreements and the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council

Free Trade

According to Oxfam International , the concept of trade has been prevalent in the international sphere for thousands of years . The conventional view of trade is to enable people to gain access of the materials and food that they are incapable of producing on their own The United Kingdom , for example , imports bananas from abroad because their climate is not suitable to grow such product . However , recent trade endeavors show how some countries were gradually recognized to be better ' or are more efficient and quick , in processing specific goods than other countries . Taking that into consideration , many countries found it beneficial for their economy to specialize in the production of goods that they are most efficient with and to trade the surpluses of their goods for products which they are incapable of producing or are not that efficient at producing . This principle is known as free trade

The Gulf Cooperation Council has been very active in establishing economic agreements among its member states . Moreover , the council has been involved in different free trade agreements with various states The member states of the organization conducted multilateral economic relations with countries such as New Zealand , Australia , Singapore and the European Union . These trade relations greatly influenced the economy of the GCC countries . Both positive and negative outcomes could be perceived in the emergence and persistence of this unique and powerful economic endeavor